COST OF LIVING

Nelson Evening Mail, 3 August 1916, Page 5

COST OF LIVING

BOARD OF TRADE REPORT. STATEMENT- BY THE PREMIER. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent./" WELLINGTON, This Day. In the House of Representatives the whole afternoon -was occupied with formal business and; presentation of the committees' reports.. ; ,_ . The evening sitting was devoted to a discussion on the question of .the ..cost of living. The (report of ..the Board, of Trade, detailing what the,. Board has done up to the present, was; presented.' by Mir Massey, .who formally - imioyed that it he laid on the,.table. ; He .said that the Board had, done very : good work. He specially referred- to -the arrangement hy the Board- with 'the Colonial Sugar Company for...a renewal T vq£ last.year's agreement, under which, tits price of sugar was fixed at £2l; per too for another year; This agreement,, eh? abled New Zealand people the benefit of the cheapest sugar in iahy-: part. >qf ..the Empire and it represented a. isaying, to the consumer of' about £360,000, a year. He said that the 'Government had .done all that it possibly could to reduce .the cost of Ir.ving. . Australian statistics sliowed that in March last the. increase in the cost of living- in the Commonwealth, since ■ the beginning of the : war was 34 per cent. In May last the .increase in New Zealand was only .a little over 17 per cent or only about- half what it was in Australia.-. He did not think there was any country _ in, the world where so many articles included in the necessai'ies of l/;fe were-admitted free of duty as in this Dominion,.: ' The. inconve exemptions in New Zealand were also higher 'than in any-other part •of the Empire. As to complaint of the ■high price for butter and cheese, he said that this was due to keen demand in the Old Country, and but for the restriction which the Government had placed upon the export of .butter, three months ago, the price would have been higher in the Domrnion. He referred to the 'great rise in freight which, in some icases, he (said, had increased by a thousand per cent. He was not a State Socialist but he ant'eipated the time when a line of State owned .20 knot steamers would" be running 'between heTo and the Old Country. . , Mr Brown moved an arwendimeßt to the effect that the House views with displeasure the fact that the Government has made no (provision by legislation for redud'ng the cost of living-. The debate continued 1 during the whole evening ibut no new points were introduced. Mr Brown's amendment was lost .by 42 to 6.

The motion to lay the report on.the tabic iwas carried and the House rose at 4.14 a.m., this being .the latest sitting of the session.

The report statedi that the Board's 1 work had resulted' .in- the following monetary saving to* the.'puiblio:— . Sugar, estimated £360i000/ ; Coal (Auckland), £3OOO. •' J : Bread (Thames), £2OOO. Coal- .(New - Hymouth),. £ISOO. • : . - , •

..Bread (NW-Plymouth), £2500.; :\- •, In addition', the (report * stated -the opinion had .been expressed that' the appointment of ithe.Boajrd' had' had =» steadying effect on prices generally.